Talk to me about Ticks.

I got my first tick at the weekend I managed to get the little blighter out and now have a small red bite mark left and a few small surrounding faint red rash type marks left. It's quite itchy but doesn't hurt at all. Is there anything I should be doing now or will it just heal up on it's own?

I got one, my first one ever on Sunday. I only had wide tweezers so tried those and stupidly broke the head off. Managed to leave head and think I got it all out. Going to get a proper bit of kit as it was a faff trying to do it properly but not!

I always use a wee dab of surgical spirit (or whisky). It stuns them into releasing their bite, meaning you can cleanly remove the whole tick. Tweezers usually work fine, although there are some good products now appearing on the market. If you're worried about Lymes, draw an ink line round the area of redness. If it starts to get significantly bigger, seek medical advice. Bites tend to itch with me for well over a week.

I read a wee while ago that drowning ticks with surgical spirits, TCP, Vaseline or whatever, is more likely to stress it - thus causing it to vomit its contents back into your bloodstream and more likely to infect. Advised removal method was with a tick twister and a quick action.

househusband - Member
I read a wee while ago that drowning ticks with surgical spirits, TCP, Vaseline or whatever, is more likely to stress it - thus causing it to vomit its contents back into your bloodstream and more likely to infect. Advised removal method was with a tick twister and a quick action.

+1

If you're worried about Lymes, draw an ink line round the area of redness. If it starts to get significantly bigger, seek medical advice.

I've lost count of how many I've had, but it's loads. Also plenty of practice on the cats, who used to get them on their heads almost constantly. Found one on my lad's tummy after a camping weekend when he was under 2. They can be hard to spot when they've just got on, it's well worth checking carefully -- getting them off before they get into their feeding stride makes it a lot less likely that you'll pick up something nasty from them.

suspected Lyme's a couple of yrs ago and 4 weeks of very strong antibiotics. Now always spray on Autan, or Smidge - prevention is a lot better than cure. A detailed post shower inspection and removal with tick twister is ideal

my GP was quite well informed as a seasoned hill walker. Blood test was negative, but I had the telltale rash and a fever. He reckoned the blood test is only 50% chance of being right, so went for the full course of antibiotics anyway - seemed to work, if it was actually Lymme's

organic355 - Member
I have never knowinglyencountered one of the little buggers.

FTFY

You'll find them in heather, grass & bracken. They usually attach themselves to sheep and/or deer, so anywhere you have that combination.

The numbers do seem to be on the increase, although I also wonder if we are hearing so much more about them just because more people are (a) out and about in the outdoors and (b) posting on the internet.

I've been bitten more times than I remember but often get them off inside 24hours as I check myself in the shower after rides. Used to be really bad on the Quantocks maybe one a month through summer. More recently I've picked them up walking in the lakes and Scotland. I carry a tick remover in my first aid kit along with some good tweezers which make them pretty simple to remove.